Orange Peels
by shortbroodygay
Summary: Max eats lunch with Victoria and her possee. But did she really just say that outloud?
1. Chapter 1

_Victoria_

" _Oh my god, wow she is so cute."_ My head is being supported by my hand, as I sit here staring at the goddess that is Max Caulfield. It's lunchtime and due to the increasing number of crimes happening recently, we're not allowed to go off campus to eat. So here we all are, outside the girls' dormitories in the courtyard, eating our lunches.

My lunch is composed of only the finest salads -fit for a queen-, a small baguette, and strawberry lemonade. I've already finished my food, so I'm just set here on the steps with my groupees, Courtney and Taylor. "Ahaha don't you think so, Victoria?" Courtney grabs my attention.

" _Shit, I wasn't listening."_ "Don't I think so, what?" I snap. I didn't really mean to, but it's not like I care if their feelings get hurt. They're not Max.

Courtney and Taylor both stop giggling like little school girls for a moment and I see a flash of confusion enter and leave their faces in the span of half a second. "Don't you agree that Max Caulfield is literally the biggest loser at this school? I mean look at her-" " _Trust me, I have."_ "- she's sitting by herself. Reading."

I let my eyes wander back over to her. " _I already know she's reading, she's been doing it for the past 20 minutes. She hasn't even touched her lunch."_ I instantly remember I've been asked a question. "Oh. Y-yeah I guess. But she's not as big of a loser as that, what's his name, Warner? Such a loser. Sad face."

" _I definitely don't think Max is the biggest loser at this school."_ My mind wanders back to the night of the party. " _ **Max, I don't hate you. I actually think you're one of the coolest people at Blackwell."**_ " _God. I am such a sap."_ I'm glad to pass the title of 'biggest loser at Blackwell' onto Warren. I know his name. I know a lot about him. But most importantly, I know of his huge crush on Maxine.

From what I know so far, Warren's crush, is unrequited. Max always seems visibly uncomfortable when he tries- terribly I might add- to flirt with her. I made a note to myself a while ago that if I'm ever alone in a room with him, to kill him.

My train of thought is interrupted by Taylor's shrill voice. "Hey! Max! Come on over here!" " _No. No. No. No. I want to pine, from a distance."_

Max lifts her head up from her book, and looks in our direction. Without saying anything, she sighs, picks up her things, and makes her way over to us. "Is there something you guys need?" Her tone seems annoyed and vulnerable and I want nothing more but to comfort her.

"Just wanted to see how the biggest loser of Blackwell was doing." My voice is full of unnecessary snark. " _Shit shit shit. So much for comforting her."_

She frowns even harder than I ever thought possible and I feel like a total ass. "Oh. Well, if you don't mind I'm going back to the bench." She turns around and starts to leave.

"Wait no!" I wish the words would jump back in my mouth before I make an even bigger fool of myself. "You can… You can sit with us." I sound needy and I cringe at my own voice.

She looks taken aback, for one. But it's obvious she doesn't buy it. "Yeah, right. Why, so you can lace my sandwich with arsenic?" " _That was a good comeback. She's learning well."_

"J-just come eat with us, hipster." I cross my arms and look down at my lap to hide the redness I can feel seeping into my cheeks.

She pauses for a moment, but comes back over to us, sitting across from me. " _Thank god. I don't know what I'd do if she sat next to me. Well… I have an idea, but Taylor and Courtney would have to be very far away."_

Taylor and Courtney strike up small talk with the brown-haired beauty that has bombarded my thoughts for the past few months. I don't even bother to listen in. Instead, I watch her eat. " _Ugh, you are so creepy, Victoria."_

Her hands are so delicate. They're average sized, but her fingers are so long and thin. Her nails are trimmed short and I make a mental note " _Another piece of evidence to add to my 'How do I know if she's gay?' list."_ She tears off little bits of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and brings them to her lips. Those lips I would just love to press against my own. I'm blatantly staring at her, and I'm not even ashamed. It's not like she's paying attention to me anyways. She's caught up in a conversation with Taylor and Courtney.

She finishes her sandwich, and wipes her mouth gently with a napkin, showing so much grace I want to catch myself on fire. Her hands reach for her orange. They indent the peel where she wants to start, and slowly starts to peel it. My eyes watch her fingers' every move. She lets all the peels fall into the napkin she laid out. " _What are you doing!? She is peeling an orange, not performing a magic trick. Why are you watching her so intently?"_ I'm in a trance, watching her peel this orange. "What are your thoughts on that, Victoria?" Max smiles at me, as she asks me a question probably about photography.

Without moving my eyes from her fingers, I reply "I want to peel you like an orange." My eyes widen and I look around myself, horrified. " _Did those words actually just come out of my mouth?!"_

Courtney and Taylor covers their mouths, trying their hardest not to laugh " _Gotta give 'em props for that."_ I can't even look at Max. My face is heating up and I've never been more embarrassed in my life. "Wow, Victoria." She pauses to giggle "I knew you were gay for Caulfield, but I never thought you'd be so upfront about it." Taylor laughs some more, Courtney joining in. I am going to _kill her._


	2. Chapter 2

After a night full of obnoxious texts filled with jokes about oranges from the group chat with Taylor and Courtney, I woke up early so there's no chance Caulfield can get to class before me. I'm not about to do the walk of shame after that incident yesterday.

So I grab my usual peppermint white chocolate mocha with whipped cream and make my way to class a solid 20 minutes earlier than usual. There's no fucking way Max will be there this early.

When I get to class, the door is heavier than I expected. Usually it's already open when I get to class, or one of my girls opens it for me. The classroom is empty, which is no surprise, the teacher doesn't show up until the bell rings and even Kate doesn't get here this early.

I take a seat at my spot and scroll through twitter. Well, I scrolled through twitter for about 5 minutes (4 minutes and 59 seconds of which, was spent restraining myself from stalking Max's twitter). Ah, what the hell, a little indulgence now and then never hurt anyone.

Max's twitter is full of selfies, retweets of shitty hipster aesthetic posts, and dumb conversations with her blue haired not-girlfriend. (I've done plenty of research on her, and she's one of the top bullet points on my "How do I know if she's gay? list")

I spend a lot of time going through her twitter, it's almost an everyday ritual at this point, but I always make sure to never follow her, like, or retweet any of her tweets. That would be crossing the line into creepy territory. After the situation yesterday, liking an old tweet would probably lead her to certain death due to embarrassment. And following her would just be weird, I only follow people I'm friends with, famous photographers, and business professionals who could further my career in photography.

As I continue further into the depths of her profile, I come across a picture of Caulfield hanging upside down from a tree, camera in hand, and her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. It's adorable. Before I can stop it, a sound breaks out of me and my body jostles the slightest bit forward. I quickly turn and search the room to make sure absolutely no one saw, or heard that. The room is clear, thank god. Did I just... snort? I can't believe that just happened, I'm mildly disgusted with myself. Euughh, I shudder.

I look back down at my phone and immediately notice a red heart that definitely wasn't there before. Oh no. Oh shit. Oh shit oh no. Oh my god. I quickly tap the heart and it turns back to white. I lock my phone and put my head in my hands. That was scary, is scary actually. I liked her tweet from over a year ago. But it's okay now, I think? I un-liked it. That should work. Everything is fine, it's great, nothing to worry abou- *ding*. What? "Max Caulfield liked your tweet" shows up on my screen, and a look of horror shows up on my face. Is this some kind of sick joke? I open up twitter and see that she liked a picture of mine from a year and a half ago, of me dressed up as Harley Quinn for a costume party. Oh god. Well, she knows I was stalking her twitter. Great, that's just - that's great. And she's screwing with me.

I put my phone away and blow out a long puff of air. I can just pretend it never happened. I don't really talk to her, so technically, it's possible for me to avoid her for the rest of my life. I can change schools, or better yet, get her to change schools. I can change my name, get some plastic surgery if need be, and we'll never have any sort of interaction for the rest of our lives.

As I plan my newly decided future, people start to pour into the classroom, the buzz of conversation and the immense amount of sunlight coming through the window starts to annoy me so I get up from my seat and quickly make my way to the restroom.

I take some time to reapply my lip gloss and wash my hands. Caulfield better not say one fucking word, or so much as glance in my direction today. I give myself a once-over in the mirror and smooth out my skirt.

I realize once I get back to the classroom that class should start any minute now. I get to my seat and sitting right there on my table next to my coffee, is a shiny orange. My mind immediately jumps to Taylor and Courtney and I turn to scold them but just as I begin to turn, I see Max out of the corner of my eye, sitting there staring right at me. It was her.

I know she wants a reaction from me, but I'm not going to humor her. Pretending not to see the orange, I don't even look at her as I pull my chair out and sit down.

Throughout the entire lecture, the orange just sits there, mocking me. I've only grown more and more frustrated as the class goes on. As if I wasn't embarrassed enough by what I said the day before, Caulfield went out of her way just to make fun of me and humiliate me further.

I don't speak to anyone during class, and don't bother to raise my hand and answer any questions, I'm just really not in the mood today. The bell rings, ending class and I don't reach for any of my belongings or make any attempt to move.

"Hey Vic, why haven't you said anything? You okay? Me and Court are gonna grab some lunch later, wanna come?" Taylor turns from her seat and asks.

As Taylor is talking, Max walks by, dumb messenger bag in hand. And she stops, somewhat near the door, and winks at me. What the fuck was that?

"N-no. Not really in the mood today. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow or something, I don't know." I wave her off and gather up my notebooks and such as Taylor and Courtney leave.

I toy with the idea of leaving the orange there, but ultimately decide against it. I grab the orange and right underneath it, is a small orange sticky note. At this point, I'm angry enough where I want to crumple up the note and throw it right into the trash without reading it. But curiosity gets the best of me and I pick it up.

On the sticky note, written in Max Caulfield's careless scrawl, sat the words "You can peel me anytime" and a small heart in the corner. My face burns hot at the implication and I quickly shove the note into my pocket. Orange in hand, I leave the classroom and walk back to the dorms with a red face.


End file.
